Monitoring compliance of CITES lion bone exports from South Africa

From 2008 to
2018, South Africa permitted the export of captive-bred African lion (Panthera leo) skeletons to Southeast
Asia. Exports rose from approximately 50 individuals in 2008 to a maximum of 1,771
skeletons in 2016, leading to concerns over possible laundering of non-lion,
multiple-source and wild material. Monitoring tools for the legal trade in lion
bones are critical to CITES compliance, ensuring that i) other species are not laundered
as lion, ii) all bones in a consignment comprise of a known number of unique
individuals to avoid ‘pooling’ or ‘tag-swopping’, and iii) each individual can
be traced to their captive origin. In addition to exploring conventional skull
morphology- and weight-based monitoring techniques, a CITES-compliant genetic
monitoring protocol to confirm the species, individual identity, and thereby the
origin of legally traded lion bones was developed and validated. We traced 800
and 799 lion bone samples obtained under ‘chain-of-custody’ sampling from the
2017 and 2018 lion bone quotas, respectively, while an additional 25 and 102
random ‘spot-checked’ samples were collected at the airport prior to export. A
real-time polymerase chain reaction was used for species assignment, while pairwise-comparative
sample matching of individual DNA profiles and origin tracing analyses were
conducted using 18–23 microsatellite markers. There are significant differences
in lion skeleton weights: farm weights (listed on CITES export permits) are
heavier than export weights, and skeletons in more recent trade are heavier
than in preceding years. Monitoring skeleton weight profiles can provide
significant regulatory advantages when correctly applied, but it may be prone
to misinterpretation and should be considered in the full context of the
procedural system. Molecular identification of individuals and species
successfully highlighted ten anomalies in comparative sample matching of
individual pairs with the same tag number between source farms and airport
spot-checks, excluding one overt attempt at laundering. We here provide both
the lion weight and genetic profile data to support these analyses.

自2008年至2018年，南非允许向东南亚出口圈养繁殖的非洲狮（Panthera leo）骨骼。出口量从2008年的约50个体增至2016年的最高1,771具骨骼，引发了关于可能存在非狮、多源和野生材料洗钱问题的担忧。对狮子骨骼合法贸易的监控工具对于CITES合规性至关重要，确保i)其他物种不被冒充为狮子，ii)每批货物中的骨骼均由已知数量的独特个体组成，以避免‘混合’或‘标签互换’，以及iii)每个个体都能追溯到其圈养起源。除了探索传统的基于颅骨形态和重量的监控技术外，还开发并验证了一种符合CITES规定的遗传监控协议，以确认物种、个体身份，从而确定合法交易狮子骨骼的来源。我们分别追溯了2017年和2018年狮子骨骼配额中通过‘保管链’采样获得的800和799个狮子骨骼样本，同时在出口前在机场收集了额外的25和102个随机‘抽查’样本。利用实时聚合酶链式反应进行物种鉴定，而个体DNA指纹的成对比较样本匹配和起源追溯分析则使用18-23个微卫星标记进行。狮子骨骼的重量存在显著差异：农场重量（列于CITES出口许可证上）比出口重量重，且近年来贸易中的骨骼重量比前几年更重。在正确应用的情况下，监控骨骼重量特征可以提供重要的监管优势，但可能存在误解释的风险，应在整个程序系统中综合考虑。个体和物种的分子鉴定成功突显了在源农场和机场抽查之间具有相同标签号码的个体配对比较样本中的十个异常，排除了一个明显的洗钱企图。在此，我们提供了狮子重量和遗传图谱数据以支持这些分析。